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Awaiting the ebb of the tides and the flow of the pens, the party returns to the Blakros Museum. However, your arrival seems to leave Nigel a bit surprised.
"Back so soon?" he inquires hopefully. "But where is Anumet---and the book for that matter?" He gives the party a good look over, but seems perplexed as to where they could be hiding either man or tome.
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Cazlin's careful control slips for a moment. He opens his mouth to utter a stammered reply, but instead of hesitant stutters, a smooth cadence of words flows forth.
"A scholar looks up to the sky,
Where madness lies to claim the soul.
His legacy did all defy,
A missing key still bars the way.
Then a scholar far too raw,
Sought secrets meant for greater men.
Mind lost deep in outer law,
Or stolen by a lingerin' will.
Now seeks the towers, fallen far,
One sunk, one stands, and one between.
The key within, beneath the star,
But none that know what lies beyond."
As soon as he finishes speaking, his face blanches white and he does his utmost to pretend that didn't happen.
"Oh, my!" Nigel responds, somewhat startled by the halfing's lyrical summation. "The attic is rumored to still contain done if the machines and devices once used by Ralzeros. Do you think to Anumet found one? Or do you think his condition brought upon by the chamber in the catacombs?"
"Still..." ponders the elven curator, "I don't seem to have been effected by any curse or possession..."
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Ironshanks raises an eyebrow at the short jokes "Kids these days! No respect fer yer elders." He snorts as they make their way back to the museum.
He lifts his visor as he hears the chattering Cazlin sound like a poet "Yer a weird kid ya know that? I think they got some smart people that could help ya with yer speaking problem. Maybe that dry skin too.." Maybe..
He does agree that maybe they should take a quick look inside the attic, follow the guy's trail a bit to get some clues. "We got time to kill till the tide goes down so we're gonna take a look 'round where yer mate went ok?"
"We got time to kill till the tide goes down so we're gonna take a look 'round where yer mate went ok?"
"What?" responds a startled Nigel, apparently having been lost in thought. "Oh, yes. Please follow me."
Nigel directs the party through the museum. Apparently well used to escorting guests through the halls, despite the nature of the mission, the curator's words take on the tone of a scholarly guide. "Anumet was working in the museum's crawlspaces and attic. They’re too rickety and awkward for any practical use these days, but they’ve been there since the Blakros family bought the place."
"Tales say that Ralzeros the Overwatched put machines there that he used to observe the stars and heavens above." Nigel lectures as you venture further through the museum. "Judging by how strangely everything up there is laid out, I suspect that the stories are right when they say he was insane."
Nigel leads you to a rickety ladder that currently stands in the museum’s storage room, leading up to a square hole in the ceiling’s decorative plasterwork. "Anumet took this ladder to get to the museum's attics."
Reeking of vermin droppings, sagging walkways and cramped stairwells connect the museum’s winding upper levels. Stifling heat fills the sealed-off rooms and crannies, and cracked and rotten boards pop and creak at the slightest touch. Dry-rotted debris lies heaped atop broken furniture and shattered crates in the long-disused chambers. Boot prints make an uncertain and winding trail through the thick dust on the attic’s floors.
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Ironshanks trudges along, his full plate weight and iron shod souls leaving deep dents in the floors and carpets. As he takes a look around the ladder and the ceiling he gives out a long, slow whistle "Pretty old up there ain't it Nigel? Won't catch the likes of me in this armor dancin' about on those flimsy rungs." He makes a show of snapping a twig between his hands.
"Maybe some of these fine kids can scamper up there instead and have a looky?" He gives the others, minus Pruk a smile and a head nod up.
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He lifts his visor as he hears the chattering Cazlin sound like a poet "Yer a weird kid ya know that? I think they got some smart people that could help ya with yer speaking problem. Maybe that dry skin too.."
Cazlin gives Ironshanks a small but appreciative smile. "I-I hope so. T-thanks."
Distracted by his own problems, Cazlin doesn't pay much attention to the museum around him until Ironshanks brings the museum's structural weaknesses to his attention. He stares up the rickety ladder with concern and then resolves himself to face it bravely. "I'll go."
He climbs up the ladder and into the attic. After a bit of wandering, he spots the boot prints and follows them long enough to reach the open secret door. Somewhat nervous about the whole endeavor, he returns to the original rickety ladder heading up and says "V-very big up here. S-secret doors. C-could b-e d-dangerous."
After someone hopefully joins him, he returns to the secret door and cautiously takes a look around.
As the party moves through the old attic space, the sharp-eyed Lem spots that the 10-foot-long section of walkway in front of the secret door, now ajar, is particularly treacherous, time having worn it down to nearly collapsing.
The gnowledgeable gnome hammers the last gnail in place allowing for safe passage through the attic space toward the gno-longer-secret, secret door.
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Ironshanks, clinging to a support beam, watches on as Ruvena, the quietest gnome he's ever met, does some amazing work on the place. "Good work kid! Maybe after we're done here you could come work on this deck I've got out back of my place?" He relaxes a bit and gets ready to head through the secret door.
Upon entering through the once-secret door, you observe strange, organic-looking patterns winding across the walls and ceiling of this chamber. The stone walls look as though they had grown winding tendrils that enshroud the area.
At the chamber’s center stands a massive, rust-covered device of gears and arms about fifteen feet across. The end of each arm supports a different colored sphere. Strange projections and barbed arrows point through each of the globes, their directions seemingly random.
Opposite from the chamber’s entrance, a naked and clearly dead body is impaled by a rust-red arrow. The corpse faces a gray, wooden door, which stands ajar.
Surprise Round
Ruvena
Lem
Cazlin
Barcher
Pruk
IT
Ironshanks
She then follows the sound into the strange room, bow drawn.
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Pruk walks swiftly into the room. ”What is sound?” Pruk takes a hard look at the body. ”Why body on stick? What put body on stick? Little people be careful or end up on stick!”
Pruk clenches his hand on his sword and prepares to swing should the need arise.
”Time for Pruk to swing big sword. Come out from where you hide. I put you on stick now. “ Pruk yells hoping whatever impaled the body shows itself.
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Cazlin moves carefully over the reinforced walkway and onwards deeper into the attic. When Ruvena retrieves it, he takes a peek at the book, but upon seeing that it doesn't seem relevant to their current task, he leaves it to Ruvena and Barcher. He proceeds after Ruvena, drawing his own bow in the process.
'Does Ruvena know something we don't?' He muses to himself as he follows in her footsteps.
He peers very carefully into the room, wide-eyed as he takes in the patterns and bizarre machinery. "W-what the heck?- uhh..." His attention is drawn to the figure impaled by the red arrow. Though he's leery to approach closer, he tries to work out who (or what) might have been a victim here.
The body is naked, impaled by a rust-red arrow--one of the jagged barbs protruding from the orrery. The rust-covered barbs and warped gears of the device keep the bare remains from collapsing to the floor. The corpse faces a gray, wooden door, which stands ajar.
The elven bard enters the room.
Hearing an unusual sound, he attempts to ascertain why he may be hearing such noises.
Unfortunately, the reason is not immediately clear to him.
Suddenly, the wounds on the bare corpse, dangling from the barbs of the orrery, begin to sizzle, turning acrid, green in color. Acid spews forth from the wounds.
The acid catches the gnome, searing her flesh--though rather mildly.
Before you can react, your minds feel as if they are being invaded!
You each see a vision of a withered, humanoid figure bursting further from the gray door. An elongated, pointed tongue protrudes from the approaching figure.
Moving rapidly from behind the door, the figure bursts forth and grabs the corpse.
No... not the corpse... it is the same body that you saw impaled on the orrery, but---but it is alive--he is alive.
Further, the living person is clothed with a distinctive robes--
--and a wayfinder!
Having grabbed the living, robed man, the figure with the elongated tongue tears into the him, ripping his flesh from his bones and then breaking into his skull with jagged claws and teeth!
As the terrifying vision fades, the long-tongued monster hisses, “The gate shall soon open!”
The vision is now gone, as suddenly as it had come.
The clearly dead, naked body remains suspended above the floor by the rust-covered orrery’s jagged barbs and warped gears.
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”You!”Pruk points at Cazlin. ”Stay back from body on stick!” Pruk moves to look at the body closer.
”Dream in head look different. Things not here like dream. Little people stay back.”
Pruk clenches his fist tight as he moves toward the door. ”Where thing come from? Doorknob made of clear funny rock with another rock inside. Come look!” Pruk moves to stand guard at the door.
”I will watch door!”
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"A buncha magic mumbo-jumbo up here, figures." Ironshanks cautiously draws out his shield for a bit of extra protection and circles around to give the corpse a prod.
"Somethin's been eatin' on this thing. Kinda like that vision we had. Come take a look, maybe one of ya knows what." Ironshanks remains within reach of the corpse, just in case it springs to life.
"Somethin's been eatin' on this thing. Kinda like that vision we had. Come take a look, maybe one of ya knows what." Ironshanks remains within reach of the corpse, just in case it springs to life.
Ruvena grimaces at the pain as the acid eats away at her but does not make a sound. She then shakes her head in disappointment at herself and begins looking around.
The acid continues to eat away at Ruvena for about six more seconds.
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Ironshanks heads over to see what the issue is "What's goin on kid? Smells like burnt gnome over here!" He gets a closer look to see the burn hole in her side and pulls out a wand. "Can ya use one of these healin' sticks? Give it a whirl!" He stands and waits, tapping his metal toe to make sure everything gets fixed up just right.
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Though he's still spooked, the levelheaded responses from the rest of the party galvanizes his own spirit. When Ruvena continues to be affected by the acid though, his eyes widen anew. "B-but! N-not an illusion then?" He steps over and uses his own waterskin to help wash her off as well as he can.
'What WAS that if it could make real acid and still appear and disappear like an apparition.'
Despite Pruk's suggestion, he moves on in himself to investigate the orrery.
Despite inspecting both the unsettling statue and the orrery, he's left shrugging as to their purpose (and their price :>).
Understanding that he's far from skilled enough to understand any of this, he moves on towards the western door with Pruk, keeping an ear open for any sounds coming from the other side. Unfortunately, the impaled body continues to unsettle and distract him and he's unable to focus.
Barcher examines the wounds.
Barcher reveals that the bite and claw marks on the naked body are typical of those of a ghoul's victim.
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Once the burning acid is dealt with, Ironshanks explores the rest of the room.
He steps up to the weird contraption and looks around it "Old rusty iron contraption this is ain't it? Oh looky here, some little statue." He'll attempt to remove it and have a closer look at it, and then the orrery.
He shakes his head, not a clue.
The elder Dwarf heads over to check out the room beyond the open door...
"Oh yer right Pruk, neat lookin' knob they got on here.. sure that looks like a sapphire in there! If I can get the light right maybe I can check fer any flaws..." He bends over and squints, polishes, and squints some more.
"Bah, I can't get a good look, 'n I doubt Nigel be happy if we're stealin' his hardware either." He peeks his head inside quickly, coughing and gagging a bit "Gah! Smells like an orcish burial pit in there! Bet that ghoul that we saw lived in there eh? Anyone read this crazy writin'?" He quickly withdraws from the room and ponders the situation further.
After a few tense moments of scratching his beard and flicking a bit of breakfast crumbs out of it he produces his hypothesis "Looky here, how's this sound. Nigel's nub of an assistant finds this place, opens up the door and stuff. Looks 'round and then that door opens up and that ghoulie jumps 'im and tears 'im a new one. Stickin' 'im on that spike there." He makes a show of pretending to push the body onto the spike.
"Poor fella gets eaten, ghoulies are hungry, specially that one been stuck in that room prolly a while. Ghoulie is maybe nutso. Grabs up this fella's clothes and takes off. That's why Nigel thought he was all funny. Nigel ain't much fer payin' attention. I think we should bring this poor kid back down and maybe he can tell us fer sure if he's 'im or not." Ironshanks waits to hear everyone's opinions.
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Cazlin peeks into the side room after Ironshanks leads the way, but he quickly turns back after he sees the horror and madness beyond.
"T-terrible things here..." He can't help but muse out loud.
When Ironshanks suggests that maybe a ghoul stole Anumet's identity, Cazlin cautiously nods. It sounds crazy, but at the same time, everything going on in this attic feels crazy. It can't hurt to try to confirm who this dead body is. He gives Ironshanks a thumbs up "L-let's try it!"
"C-can ask Nigel about..." He points at the western room, hoping that Nigel might be able to read the creepy text and shed some light on what this all might mean.
If Ironshanks needs help dislodging the body, Cazlin reaches up and tries to aid him.
The party manages to get the body down from the attic space when, now on the ground floor, you find that your efforts have attracted Nigel's attention. "What do you have there...oh, my!"
The curator is quite surprised when he realizes the party has recovered a body. Looking over the corpse, the half-elf's face turns dour. "Egads! That's Anumet! But how did he get back into the museum? And for that matter where are his clothes?"
Nigel tries to steel himself, knowing that any response is likely to be quite unpleasant to hear. However, before he can do so, he gasps again in utter horror. "And where is the book he took!?" the curator wails even louder than before. "It was the museum's only copy!"
